Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-09-08
kALAkAuA.s PALACE.
The Gorgeous Structure Erected by thu
PrOffigate Hawaiian Monarch


was laid with full Masonic ceremonials
(Kalakaua being prominent Mason)
on Queen Kapiolani's birthday, the
last day in the year 1879. 1t stands on
! an immense block, close to the heart of
the city. bounded by King. Richard and
Likelike streets and Palace Walk. The
palace itself covers an area of 140X120
feet, being thus neurly square. 1t con-
sists of two stories and basement 1t
has large central tower and a smaller
tower on each of the four corners.
From the base to the top of the central
tower it is 81 feet high. The original
surmised cost was $50, 900, but by 1880
$40, 900 had been expended and a fur
Their appropriation of $4,000 was
asked to complete it. Then its compile
ton was promised for 1881, but at its
opening in 1888 the whole affair was
found to have cost $500 1t is built
of brick (cemented) from designs by
Baker, remodeled by e. J. Wall, and
the exterior is deliberately ornamented,
while the interior is-well, an artistic
surprise. In all there are forty rooms.
and considering that all but those in
the basement are seldom used, it will
puzzle the reader to imagine what
could be arranged in so many apart
ments. But the Hawaiian Kamehame-
has were powerful and had many visit
ors, besides which Kalakaua himself
has been almost round the globe, and
the foundation of decorative orders
brings about the PRONUNCIATION of still
more decorative gifts, SO that Iolani
Palace is literally loaded with curiosi-
ties, both novel and ornamental. The
front or state entrance to the
palace, which entrance is only used on
very special occasions, is on King
street. nearly opposite the Government
buildings. Entering the palace this
way, then, the visitor comes first of all
to very broad hall leading from this
entrance, each side of the staircase,
and then right through to the back or
palace walk end of the building. The
first room to the right of this hall is
the throne room, and here is enough
conglomeration of the barbaric and the
modern to mystify the beholder. All
round the walls are well executed por-
traits of the former Kings of Hawaii,
and at the extreme end portrait
which both the King and Queen have
often silently gazed upon. 1t is an oil
painting of Kaahumanu, a wife of
Kamehameha the Great, who after his
death, became Prime Minister and was
virtually monarch during the short
reign of Kamehameha II. Perhaps
Kapiolani objects to her name (''Cap-
tive of Heavenly as she looks on this
savage DANES determined features
and longs to emulate her. But her
spouse knows that those despotic times
have long since gone by. Here, also,
are the marvellous royal feather robes,
the gorgeOusness of which no one can
imagine. The robe used by Kalakaua,
and exhibited in this throne room, is
the identical n1ansO (mantle) worn by
the great first Kamehameha. 1t is
eleven feet in width and five feet in
length, and made entirely of golden
feathers from the 90, or royal bird.
Only two feathers are found Gone I'M
der each wing) on each bird. AS it
takes a thousand feathers to make an
ordinary necklace, what vast quanti-
ty must this robe contain! And this is
not only the collection of lifetime.
but the combination of the boards of
eight or ten successive chiefs. At the
opening of Parliament this robe is
spread upon the throne as symbolical
of royalty, but at other times it is al /
ways kept over in the palace, and it is |
said that Kalakaua was once discOv- |
cred alone in the throne room with this /
robe around him gesticulating and .
voicing forth vowels to his ancestors
like child with new toy. Kalakaua /
is now fifty-one years OF age and has /
been drawing $4,000 a year since he
started, besides extra money being
paid his Queen, his and her stats and
their household expenses. Although
the King has an interest in three sa-
looms and has some good property in
land, and certainly often helps some of
his poor subjects, yet the mass of this
wealth goes for the Poi feasts and Hula
dances, in which his predecessors also
reveled. Even when the white people
are now invited, the old name of Luaa
(native feasO is used, and the gyra-
tons of the finger round the calabash
of sticktaro form the principal event.
Hula dances are even given in the
strictions, and shorn, in the presence
of Europeans, of their dominant feat
ures. See Kalakaua on a state occa-
sion, and, fairly corpulent as he is, he
seems hardly to have room to hold his
medals and decorations-all one blaze
of useless glitter. But creep down to
the Union saloon early some evening.
There you will see his Majesty King
Kalakaua of the Hawaiian Islands sit
ting before toddy, dressed in ala old
blue serge suit, with cheap straw hat
on the back of his head, and looking,